


Winter into Spring

by ysse_writes



Category: Mushishi
Genre: Gen, Het
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-21
Updated: 2009-12-21
Packaged: 2017-10-04 21:51:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/34486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ysse_writes/pseuds/ysse_writes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Spring, summer, fall, and winter. And spring.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Winter into Spring

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tend](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tend/gifts).



_He finds Suzu waiting for him at the foot of the mountain, barring his way.  _

_So much for a clean getaway._

_"You were going to leave without saying goodbye," she accuses._

_He shrugs, denying it would be pointless._

_He wonders how she knew what path he'd take, then laughs at himself.  This is her mountain, her home.  Doubtless, she knows every inch of it._

_"I was going to send you off properly," she says, lightly, now trying to sound cheerful.  "Make you a bento, a new walking stick and everything." It doesn't work. He hears the shadows in her voice. He knows she's waiting for him to say something, but he doesn't.  There isn't anything he can say._

_"Promise me," she says, finally,  her face somber and intent. "Promise me you'll come back. For Miharu, if not for me."_

_Ginko doesn't want to promise, he knows better._

_"Maybe," he says.  "Someday."_

_He'd already half-promised Miharu, does this make it a whole, actual promise? Ginko isn't sure. Maybe it's good enough, because she moves out of his way and lets him pass._

_She doesn't say goodbye, either, he notices._

 

_Spring_

Ginko has grown unaccustomed to the air, to the sky.  He wakes up and expects to see a ceiling, expects  to hear someone tending to the fire.

He expects _fire_, for mushi's sake.

Seriously, he got out of there just in time.

He follows the road for a few days, in search of a destination. 

He finds the Watari, whose leader welcomes him warmly.    The energy among the Watari is contagious, they've just made camp but already they're buzzing with impatience, with restlessness.  "It was a hard winter," Isaza says.  "We stayed in one village too long."    Ginko  understands the feeling.

This is one time he does not need to pay for news or rumors.  Instead, he tells Isaza of a village he'd visited, of a leader who loves his children, of a ravaged mountain that is again slowly turning green.

"So, he never left, huh?" Isaza asks. "I knew he didn't have it in him. He'll never leave that mountain, he loves it too much."  He laughs, though there's a slight tinge of regret in his voice.  "I was right to leave him, he would never have made it in the Watari."

"He remembers me," Ginko reports.  "He says he thinks about you."

Isaza's answering smile is almost wistful.

_You should go back_, Ginko almost says, but he doesn't.  The Watari are nomads for a reason. 

Ginko thinks of another mountain, covered in snow. Of someone else who will never ever leave. He thinks of a girl waiting for her brother to wake; spending the winter alone.  He thinks about how she burst into tears the moment he reappeared on her doorstep, and the way joy broke through her features, as a snowdrop breaks through snow, when Miharu finally awoke.  He thinks of the tears and the scolding, the almost-violent hugs.  He thinks of how sly Miharu really is, to get that kind of homecoming, even though he never really leaves.

Miharu would probably really leave, someday, at least for a while.  He's too promising a _mushishi_  not to find someone else to study under.  Maybe the _harumagari_  is actually a good thing, preparing Suzu for that day.

"We're just here for supplies," Isaza says.  "We leave in two days.  Are you coming with us?"

"No," Ginko says.  It's not good for him to stay in the same place for long.  Or even with the same people.

 

_Summer_

He doesn't remember when the dreams start. He falls asleep and he feels a warmth beside him.  There's the sound of gentle breathing.  Two breaths, in fact.  One is more regular, more distant.  The louder one, the nearer one, is less regular, less peaceful.  Once in a while, the breathing hitches, or there's a sigh. Sometimes, he thinks the breathing sounds like weeping. Sometimes, he thinks it sounds like singing. They become worse until he thinks he can actually remember the words to the songs.

He must have heard them somewhere, he thinks.  That has to be the only explanation.

He enjoys visiting Tanyuu in the summer. For one thing, the archive is dark and cool, a good way to escape from the summer sun for a few days.  And Tanyuu is always good company.

He likes Tanyuu, respects her.  She is glorious, like the summer, a woman in the fullness of her power. He and she have many things in common. They understand each other, understand the demands of each other's lives. They never run out of things to talk about. There would be something there, maybe, if he just let himself think about it.

They talk of all the places Ginko has seen, and all the places she will visit when she can finally travel, when her body runs out of ink and her curse is lifted.  Tanyuu reminds Ginko of his promise.  No doubt she will be a good companion.  Ginko knows that as lovely her home is, as much as Tama loves her, she would leave tomorrow if she could. 

He doesn't know why he thinks it, but he thinks it's more impressive when someone stays by choice.  


 

_Fall_

The dreams become  worse. Recently, he's realized that they aren't dreams after all.  They're memories.  Memories of the time when he was asleep.  The sounds he heard all those months, all the things that Suzu had told him when she thought he couldn't hear.  All the loneliness, all the sacrifice, all the strength.

It's not often he gets a summons from Adashino.   Ginko welcomes the excuse.   When he arrives, Adashino tells him that some children have gone missing. It's strange indeed.  In the morning, parents would simply find their children gone.  Though some parents had gone so far as to nail shut their windows and bolt their doors, the children would find a way, some apparently gaining superhuman strength in their desire to leave their house.

Only one little girl could provide any clue to the strange disappearances.  She said her mother had called for her to come.  She had obeyed, instantly, and leapt through a second-storey window because the stairs would have taken too long.

The child's mother had been dead for a year.

"_Kitsune__-bi_," Ginko tells Adashino. Foxfire. _Mushi_ that lure people away by showing them a vision of what they most desire. It promises to be a hard winter, if the _kitsune-bi_ are storing up this much food, this early. "The children should still be alive, somewhere, I just need to find them in time."

"You can't go after it," Adashino protests, albeit only half-heartedly.  "Not alone."

"It's alright," Ginko says.  He already knows what to look for.  He already knows what he'll see.

 

 

He gets hurt fighting the true form of the_ kitsune-bi._ More specifically, he gets hurt fighting the victims, who did not want to be rescued. He had underestimated just how powerful the _kitsune-bi_ was.  After eating so many people for so long, it knew exactly what to show them, how to weaken their guard.  Ginko hadn't known, hadn't read about how _kitsune-bi_ could show a person entire worlds, entire _lives_, like that. No wonder its victims went so willingly, fought so hard to stay.

 

"I thought you were spending the winter here," Adashino protests, when Ginko takes up his pack. "You should stay put for a while, gather your strength."

He gives himself excuses.  It's the dreams.  He has to get some sleep.  Miharu, the brat, probably went after his _harumagari_  again, and Suzu is spending the winter alone.

The truth is, he realizes, unlike the people of the village, those victims, he didn't need the _kitsune-bi_ to dream. He sees it all so clearly now. Everything she never said directly, everything she never told him when he was awake.

He can't stay in one place for too long, but if he could, that place isn't here.

"I saw a butterfly," he tells Adashino.  "I have to go."

 

_Winter_

"You're too late," Suzu  says, when she sees him.  "Miharu fell asleep a week ago."

"I know," Ginko says, "and no, I'm not."

 

_  
_

_Miharu wakes up. Suzu is still asleep._

_"Yo," says Ginko._

_Miharu blinks up at him.  Sleepy, not surprised. "I thought you said you would never return in winter," Miharu says._

_Ginko says nothing, merely stares blandly at Miharu with his one good eye and smokes his cigarette._

_Miharu sits up, rubbing his eyes.  He grins.  "You can like her, you know," he says, "if you want."_

_People are weak in winter._

**Author's Note:**

> I am really sorry this is not Ginko/Tanyuu or Ginko/Adashino. I hope you enjoy it anyway. Merry Christmas!


End file.
